JPH03130803A - Programmable controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To check the scramble for signals between programmable controllers via only the programmable controller set at the transmission side by providing a loop-back processing means and an address designating means. CONSTITUTION:A network interface 8 is provided to perform the communication between programmable controllers 20. A loop-back processing means 21 sends back the specific data received from an optional controller 20 to the transmitter controller 20 via the controller 20 of the reception side. Then an address designating means 7 decides that the specific data to be sent back can be designated by an inspector. In such a constitution, it is possible to confirm whether the signals are scrambled between controllers 20 as designed in a plant or not via only the controller 20 of the transmission side and only a single inspector.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to the relationship between programmable controllers used in automatic control devices of various plants, and in particular, to the relationship between programmable controllers used in automatic control devices of various plants, and in particular, to The present invention relates to a programmable controller that allows easy inspection of signal exchange between controllers.

(Conventional technology) Programmable and
Controllers are widely used. Usually, a plurality of programmable controllers are connected to a network, and each programmable controller is configured to communicate with each other.

An example of the configuration of a conventional programmable controller is shown in FIG.

In the figure, a programmable◆controller 1 is a CPU (Central Process) that sequentially executes all programs in the programmable controller.
ssing Unit) 2, a system program memory 3 storing a control program for communicating with a plurality of other programmable controllers 1, a user program memory 4 containing a program for controlling the plant, and this user program memory 4. A communication setting data memory 5 that contains setting data for specifying storage of data sent from another programmable controller 1 at a specific address, and programming for inputting setting data into this communication setting data memory 5.・
A console 7, a network interface 8 that enables connection with external circuits, an input/output circuit that performs input/output with plant sensors and controlled devices, and a data bus 10 that connects these component devices. It consists of

Each programmable controller 1 has a network
It is connected to a network 11 via an interface 8 via a transmission path 12, allowing mutual communication.

In the programmable controller 1 configured as described above, communication with other programmable controllers 1 is executed by a control program in the system program memory 3. The flow of signals exchanged between the programmable controllers by executing this control program will be explained with reference to FIG.

The user program memory 4 of each programmable controller 1 has, in addition to a program area 40, areas for a transmitter 41 and a receiver 42.

All data in the transmitting section 41 of the user program memory 4 is transmitted via the network interface 8 to the programmable controller having the corresponding number according to the number set in advance in the control program of the system program memory 3. be done.

The programmable controller 1 on the receiving side takes in the data group via the network interface 8 and transfers each data individually to the corresponding address of the receiving section 42 of the user program memory 4 according to the settings of the communication setting data memory 5. (Hereafter, this will be referred to as signal editing processing 1.
3).

FIG. 9 shows the signal editing process 13 for the captured data group 14.
This shows how the program is being transferred to the user program memory 4. In the figure, 15 indicates an address, and [1] to [n] indicate address values.

The data group 14 includes x, y, . . . 2. Assume that the data with values ``...'' are arranged in the order shown in the figure, and
Assuming that the contents of the communication setting data memory 5 are set such that X is stored at address [n-11] of user program memory 4, y is stored at address [1], and 2 is stored at address [3]. , the data group 14 will be stored in the user program memory 4 at the location as set.

The data distributed in this manner is used as a plant control program in the program area 40.

Communication between the programmable controllers is performed by repeating the above series of processes.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the communication performed between the programmable controllers 1, the data group 14 taken in by the programmable controller is determined according to the settings in the communication setting data memory 5, and each data is User program memory 4
A signal editing process 13 is being performed to transfer the signal to the corresponding address 15. In a plant using such a programmable controller 1, an inspection is required to confirm that the contents of the communication setting data memory 5 are communicating signals in accordance with the plant design.

Conventionally, inspectors are placed at both the programmable controller 1 on the transmitting side and the programmable controller 1 on the receiving side, and the data group 14 in the transmitting section 41 of the user program memory 4 is checked one by one at a specific value on the transmitting side. It was confirmed that the program was changed to , and that it was reliably stored in the specified address 15 of the receiving section 42 of the user program memory 4 of the receiving side programmable controller 1.

In this case, as the scale of the plant increases, the number of programmable controllers connected to the network increases, and the amount of data communicated between programmable controllers increases, the number of man-hours required for inspection increases. increase

In this way, traditional programmable controllers
From an inspection point of view, it must be said that this is a very costly device.

The present invention was made in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional equipment, and to ensure that the signal exchange between the programmable controller is in accordance with the plant design! It is an object of the present invention to provide a programmable controller that can perform verification tests using only the programmable controller on the transmitting side.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A programmable controller of the present invention includes means for communicating between the programmable controllers, and any programmable controller in a plurality of programmable controllers connected to a network. Loopback processing means for returning specific data sent by the controller to the sending programmable controller via the receiving programmable controller, and addressing means that allows the inspector to specify data at a specific address to be returned. It is characterized by comprising the following.

(Function) In the programmable controller of the present invention configured as described above, data in the receiving programmable controller is returned to the transmitting source by addressing, so only the transmitting programmable controller can Furthermore, an inspector alone can confirm whether the signal exchange between the programmable controller is in accordance with the plant design.

(Point Embodiment) Next, the length embodiment and operation of the programmable controller of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. In these figures, the same parts as in FIGS. 7 to 9 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed explanations will be omitted unless necessary.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a programmable controller 20 of the present invention, and as is clear from comparison with FIG. 7, a loopback processing memory 21 is built into the device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows communication functions in the programmable controller of the present invention.

The program in the loopback processing memory 21 is common to all programmable controllers 20, but in order to explain the functions in FIG. However, the program in the loopback processing memory 21 will also be explained separately into processing on the sending side and processing on the receiving side.

On the sending side programmable controller 2 Ob side, a specific address value in the user program memory 4 of the receiving side programmable controller 20a is added from the programming console 7 to the data group of the sending unit 41 in the user program memory 4 (address designation 22 ) L,, which is sent to the receiving programmable controller 2 via the network interface 8.
Send to 0a.

On the receiving side programmable controller 2Oa side, when receiving the data group via the network interface 8, it performs signal editing processing 13 and transfers each data to the receiving section 42 of the user program memory 4. After the transfer, the program in the loopback processing memory 21
A specific address value added by the programming console 7 is identified, and the data of the corresponding address is transmitted to the data group 14 of the transmitter 41 in the user program memory 4.
and sends it back to the transmitting programmable controller 20b.

Receiving programmable controller 2O by addressing from such programming console 7
The process of returning the data in a to the transmission source is referred to as loopback process 23 in this specification.

Figure 3 shows the programmable controller 20b on the transmitting side.
This is a flowchart of the loopback processing 23 in Step S1. When an address to be looped back is specified in Step S1, that address is added to the transmission data (Step S2), and the transmission data is transmitted to the receiving side programmable controller 20a. (Step S3).

On the other hand, when loopback data is received from the receiving side programmable controller 20a in step S4, copying to the loopback data storage area is executed (
Step S5).

Also, Figure 4 shows the receiving side programmable controller 2.
This is a flowchart of the loopback process 23 in step R1.
When data is received from the controller 20b, the address of the data to be looped back is recognized in step R2,
The data of the recognized address is sent to the sender's programmable
Hit the ball back to the controller 20b (Stetsu 7”R3).

Therefore, the inspector can determine whether the programmable controller is operating properly by comparing and confirming the transmitted data and the data returned from the programmable controller 20a on the receiving side.

In FIG. 5, n programmable controllers 20 are connected to the network 11 via transmission paths 12, and each programmable controller's identification number (No. 1 to No. n) is stored in the system program memory 3. stored within.

Next, in the programmable controller configured as shown in FIG. 5, let us assume that, for example, programmable controllers No. 1 and No. 12 are communicating, and operate following one data flow shown in FIG. explain. Note that the broken lines in FIG. 6 indicate data copies.

First, as a premise, the communication setting data memory 5 (FIG. 1) includes the transmitting side programmable controller 20 shown in FIG.
It is assumed that data at address [1] of the transmitter 41 of the user program memory 4 in b is set to be sent to address [m] of the receiver 42 of the user program memory 4 in the receiving programmable controller 20a. .

In FIG. 6, data X at address [1] in the user program memory transmitter 41 of the receiving side programmable controller 20b is transmitted to other addresses [2] to [
It is transferred to the network interface 8 as a transmission data group 51 together with the data group nl.

Next, from the programming console 7, the address value (in this case, Cm) of the user program memory receiving section 42 in the receiving programmable controller 20a, which is the target of the loopback process 23, and the transmitting programmable controller that returns the signal are input. The number of the controller 20b (here, No. 12 is specified) is sent to the transmission data group 51.
Add to.

This transmission data group 51 is transmitted to the receiving side programmable controller 20a, passed through the network interface 8, subjected to signal editing processing 13, and then distributed to the receiving section 42 of the user program memory 4, and the data X is sent to the address [ m].

Here, the program that performs the loopback processing 23 identifies the address value added to the transmission data group 51 and the number of the transmission side programmable controller 20b, and sends the data X at address [m] to the user program memory transmission section 41. Transfer to the last part [L]. The data group of the user program memory transmitter 41 obtained in this way is
As the received data group 52, the network interface 8 of the programmable controller 20a on the receiving side
and is sent back to the transmitting programmable controller 20b having identification number No. 12.

On the other hand, on the transmitting programmable controller 2ob side, the data group 52 received via the network interface 8 is transferred to the user program memory receiving section 42.
Store in.

The data X returned from the programmable controller 20a on the receiving side as described above is located at the last address [L] of the user program memory receiving section 42, and is sent back to the programmable controller 20a on the sending side of the data X.
Confirmation of the signal exchange between the programmable controller 20a and the programmable controller 20a on the receiving side (the communication between the address [1] of the user program memory transmitting section 41 on the transmitting side and the address [m] of the user program memory receiving section 42 on the receiving side) is as follows. This can be done by comparing the data at address [1] of the transmitting side programmable controller 20b with the data at address [L].

In this example, since data X is stored in both addresses [1] and [L], the test result is determined to be good.

[Effect of the invention] As described above, according to the present invention, programmable
Inspection of signal exchange between controllers can be performed only by the programmable controller on the transmitting side. As a result, the speed and reliability of testing will improve, and the number of personnel required for testing will be halved compared to conventional methods.

Therefore, the present invention is extremely useful in practice.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the programmable controller of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the signal flow of loopback processing in the device of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of loopback processing (receiving side) in the device of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a network configuration diagram showing an example of the device of the present invention; FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the flow of arbitrary signals in the device shown in FIG. 5, and FIG.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the structure of the controller, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the flow of signals in a conventional programmable controller, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing signal editing processing in the conventional programmable controller. 1...Programmable controller 1
0... Data bus 12... Transmission line 13... Signal editing processing 14... Data group 15 ......Address 20...Programmable controller 21...Loopback processing memory 22.
...... Address specification 23 ...... Loopback processing 51 ...
......Transmission data group 52......Reception data group

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a plurality of network-connected programmable controllers, there is a means for communicating between the programmable controllers, and a means for transmitting specific data transmitted from any programmable controller to the transmitting programmable controller via a receiving programmable controller.
A programmable controller comprising: loopback processing means for returning data to the controller; and addressing means for allowing an inspector to specify data at a specific address to be returned.